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Aidin Vaziri | MC Lars, the Stanford-educated rapper best known for the hit “Hot Topic Is Not Punk Rock,” is back with a new album, “This Gigantic Robot Kills.” Mixing hip-hop beats and punk guitars with free-association rhymes about computers and comic books, the 26-year-old Pacifica resident has become one of the most prominent figures of a musical sub-genre called nerdcore. On Thursday, Lars (real name Andrew Robert Nielsen) performs at Amoeba Music in San Francisco. We asked him for a syllabus.

MC Lars: Nerdcore rapper: Q: What’s nerdcore all about?A: It’s hip-hop that’s not afraid to be smart. It’s the same music but with a lyrical predisposition about computers and science fiction and technology. Some of the references are really obscure, like you need to know computer coding to get it.Q: You’re probably the only rapper that has dropped Noam Chomsky’s name in a song.A: Growing up, hip-hop was educational and entertaining. For me it’s a success if a punk kid comes to my show and then wants to check out KRS-One, or if a hip-hop kid comes and then wants to check out Minor Threat. If either of them wants to read “Hamlet” afterward, then that’s a bonus. Continue reading.